“It’s a long time until next November and a lot can happen between now and then. There is no reason not to run him and I’ve checked everything,” said Nicholls.

“He worked really well on Saturday and Ruby (Walsh) sat on him and schooled him this morning.

“He’s really fresh and Ruby’s comment was that he obviously doesn’t like getting beat.

“I was really happy after he schooled this morning.

“To me he ran a cracker at Cheltenham, I think he probably ran a better race than in last year’s Gold Cup,” the champion trainer told Racing UK.

“He might just have been beaten on the day by an exceptional horse. I think he ran as good a race as he’s probably run.”

Kauto Star will be joined in the Bowl by Racing Post Chase winner Gungadu, whom Nicholls is hoping can bustle up a couple of the other big guns.

“Gungadu schooled with him and he runs as well, but off his handicap mark he’s got a mountain to climb,” he admitted.

“He’s in no-man’s land a little bit as we either have to carry top weight in handicaps, which isn’t that attractive off a mark of 161, or take on the big boys.

“Some of these horses that have been to Cheltenham might not run their races and if that happened we’d be sick if we didn’t have Gungadu in the race.”

Nicky Richards has yet to decide whether to run course specialist Monet’s Garden in the Bowl or wait another 24 hours to unleash him in the John Smith’s Melling Chase.

The popular grey won last year’s Melling, but would have to take on devastating Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Master Minded if going for the two-and-a-half-mile option.

Richards said: “We just haven’t made our minds up yet which race to run in. We’re just going to think over the next 24 hours.

“He’s probably better over two and a half miles but the main thinking is just that Master Minded was probably the most impressive winner we’ve seen at Cheltenham for a long time.

“We want to try and choose the most winnable race, if that’s the right wording,” Richards told At The Races.